Hos 7:3-7 | KingComments | STEP | deal with kings, rulers, how one sees them and deals with them, and ends with their assassination. It seems that these verses describe how the king and his royals are treacherously overthrown. In order to sketch what is happening here, metaphors are used. The people who want to kill the king are compared to a heated oven. They are full of evil and vengefulness and their entire inside glows with zeal to kill the king. The dough represents the king who must be put to death in the oven of their lust for murder. Outwardly they are kind to the king, but in their hearts they hate him. Here the treacherous nature of sin manifests itself clearly. It begins underground, unnoticed. The fire is stirred up, the dough is kneaded, and the baker sleeps. Then the appropriate moment arrives and the flames flare up high. Unscrupulous people take their chance, kill the king and another sits on the throne. What the baker and the assassin have in common in this imagery is that – after having made the necessary preparations – they both wait until the moment of action has arrived. In all this, there is no thought of God present. There is no one calling to the LORD. “Make the king glad” ( ) means that they make him happy by giving him wine in order to be able to kill him all the more easily. They use lies to get the rulers at the feast they organize. To celebrate a feast, the rulers always can appreciate that. Whether there is a valid reason for it, does not matter. Even less does it matter if it is a feast where also the LORD can be. If only something can be celebrated. After all, life is one big celebration. But the rulers do not realize how hatred burns in the hearts of those they are invited by. The metaphor of is not so easy to understand. What is clear, however, is that the adulterous behavior of the people is compared to an oven that continues to burn, without new food being given to it. It indicates the attitude, the mind of their hearts, which is aimed at giving in to every lust that arises. We can take their adulterous behavior literally. One can also think of a behavior that is equal to that of the nations around them. They think only of their own advantage. If the rulers do not provide this, they must be eliminated. The preparation for that can possibly be seen in the kneading of the dough. People’s thinking must be made ripe. The baker, which is he who has prepared his plan, tries to convince the people. He deludes them about how much benefit it will bring if the king is put aside. This is in line with the hatred the people have for their king. When their thoughts have been influenced in this way, “until it is leavened”, the time is ripe to strike. Perhaps some people even think they are doing God a favor by killing their king. The mixing of idolatry with a service to God is, however, aptly expressed in the mixing of the leaven – in the Bible always a picture of something sinful – with the dough made from the fruit of the land given by God. The Lord Jesus shows with the picture of the leaven that false doctrine will permeate the whole Christianity ( ).

‏ Hosea 7:3-7

Deeds That Bring Joy and Death

Hos 7:3-7 deal with kings, rulers, how one sees them and deals with them, and ends with their assassination. It seems that these verses describe how the king and his royals are treacherously overthrown. In order to sketch what is happening here, metaphors are used. The people who want to kill the king are compared to a heated oven. They are full of evil and vengefulness and their entire inside glows with zeal to kill the king. The dough represents the king who must be put to death in the oven of their lust for murder. Outwardly they are kind to the king, but in their hearts they hate him.

Here the treacherous nature of sin manifests itself clearly. It begins underground, unnoticed. The fire is stirred up, the dough is kneaded, and the baker sleeps. Then the appropriate moment arrives and the flames flare up high. Unscrupulous people take their chance, kill the king and another sits on the throne. What the baker and the assassin have in common in this imagery is that – after having made the necessary preparations – they both wait until the moment of action has arrived. In all this, there is no thought of God present. There is no one calling to the LORD.

“Make the king glad” (Hos 7:3) means that they make him happy by giving him wine in order to be able to kill him all the more easily. They use lies to get the rulers at the feast they organize. To celebrate a feast, the rulers always can appreciate that. Whether there is a valid reason for it, does not matter. Even less does it matter if it is a feast where also the LORD can be. If only something can be celebrated. After all, life is one big celebration. But the rulers do not realize how hatred burns in the hearts of those they are invited by.

The metaphor of Hos 7:4 is not so easy to understand. What is clear, however, is that the adulterous behavior of the people is compared to an oven that continues to burn, without new food being given to it. It indicates the attitude, the mind of their hearts, which is aimed at giving in to every lust that arises. We can take their adulterous behavior literally. One can also think of a behavior that is equal to that of the nations around them. They think only of their own advantage.

If the rulers do not provide this, they must be eliminated. The preparation for that can possibly be seen in the kneading of the dough. People’s thinking must be made ripe. The baker, which is he who has prepared his plan, tries to convince the people. He deludes them about how much benefit it will bring if the king is put aside. This is in line with the hatred the people have for their king. When their thoughts have been influenced in this way, “until it is leavened”, the time is ripe to strike.

Perhaps some people even think they are doing God a favor by killing their king. The mixing of idolatry with a service to God is, however, aptly expressed in the mixing of the leaven – in the Bible always a picture of something sinful – with the dough made from the fruit of the land given by God. The Lord Jesus shows with the picture of the leaven that false doctrine will permeate the whole Christianity (Mt 13:33).

Drunkenness and Kingship

Talking about “our king” seems to be an indication that Hosea is a subject of the ten tribes realm. “The day” can be a birthday or some other kind of day of remembrance. The fact that they want to get their rulers drunk says a lot about the moral state of the people of God. Whoever makes someone deliberately drunk, certainly a ruler, calls God’s judgment upon himself (Hab 2:15). It also says a lot about the moral condition of the king who allows himself to be drunk. The king himself is responsible (Pro 31:3-4).

How can someone who cannot govern himself rule a country? Drunkenness makes people sick and affects their health. In addition, it leads to shameless and unscrupulous behavior, a behavior that one would not normally come to. It brings someone into the company of unscrupulous people. The intoxication of the drink makes him agree with those people. He lowers himself to their level.

Children of God are also kings. They are warned above all to stay sober and not to be intoxicated by the wine. And not only in a literal sense. Also, in a spiritual sense they should not let themselves be intoxicated by the thinking of the world. It is important that they keep a clear view of God’s plan with their lives. Those who constantly allow the influence of TV programs or the filth of the internet to influence themselves will eventually lower themselves to the level of thinking and acting as it is shown there.

Conscience and Lust

The phrase “their anger smolders” can also be translated as “their baker sleeps” (cf. Hos 7:4). In this verse we can then see the following picture: the ‘oven’ is the plotting, the ‘heart’ is the dough or the bread, the ‘baker’ is the passion of idolatry and of evil lusts. In the ‘baker’ we can also see the conscience of man. Their conscience sleeps; they follow their own will and imagination. Their hearts are on fire because of their passions. An unclean heart is like a heated oven, and its unclean lusts and desires are like the fuel that makes the fire hot.

Paul uses the same imaginative language when he describes the lewd lusts to which people surrender who do not care about God and His Word (Rom 1:27). The natural feelings are killed when one no longer takes into account what God has said and one simply follows one’s own lusts.

Conscience has been given to man by God after and as a result of the fall in sin. It is a ‘warning mechanism’. This means that the conscience only gives a signal when we think of and do something that is not right. We can ease our conscience by constantly coming up with arguments to make the wrong thing we did not seem so bad after all. If we repeat this often enough, the conscience will eventually no longer respond if something is done that is contrary to God’s Word. The conscience becomes numb, it is as if it is asleep. But lust does not sleep. It burns constantly like an oven.

Hot Like an Oven

In Hos 7:6, only the heart is an oven. Here in Hos 7:7 it seems that the whole person has become an oven, an oven that consumes their rulers and kings. All their thoughts and actions are aimed at killing their leaders. All the actions of a person come from his heart (Pro 4:23). If feelings of hatred or lust are cherished in the heart, they will at some point be transformed into actions.

How hurtful all this is to God can be heard in the last words of this verse. God complains that there is no one calling on Him. Nothing would be better for the people than to turn to Him Who not only can give a solution, but seeks the best for His people.